Thanksgiving

Luke 12:13-21 - Thanksgiving/Harvest - November 24, 2016
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

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Why does God give us so much?  In order to answer this question, we must also be able to answer the question of why God permits us to go without.  No matter how much wealth we have, our sinful flesh would present this latter question as the most pressing: Why God?  How could God let me suffer so much?  Why do you take so much away?  Well, could it be, perhaps, that we don’t deserve even that which he lets us keep?  Are we not sinners at the constant mercy of God who gives and takes according to his own inscrutable wisdom?  Yes.  We are.  It is as Job confessed, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). 

So how is it that Job was able to confess this so plainly and confidently?  How is it that we might learn to live with much as well as with little – to be, with St. Paul, content in whatever state we find ourselves?  It comes down to knowing the character of God – that is, getting a glimpse into this inscrutable wisdom of his – whether he is giving or taking.  This glimpse is graciously afforded where God reveals his favor and regard for you.  In fact, he shows you where it is always found, so it is more than a glimpse.  The face of God that shines upon you is found in Christ his Son who suffered and died for you.  It is found where this same Christ continues to serve you with his blood-bought forgiveness, teaching you to accept all God’s goodness with a clean conscience as free gifts from a loving Father. 

We interpret all things that God permits through the lens of the cross.  Through the cross of Jesus that gains our salvation, we are able to see the hardships and pain we endure not as the crushing heel of an aloof or vengeful deity, but as the gentle hand of our Father who lays crosses on us in order to sharpen our gaze on Christ his beloved Son, our Brother, who is our all and all. 

Jesus teaches us to suffer loss in order that we might enjoy our bounty all the more.  And this isn’t just a psychological trick to give us perspective.  It’s not like we enjoy what little we may have simply by remembering how much harder it was to have less.  It’s more than that.  By teaching us to accept God’s chastening rod when he takes away, we come to learn where his favor and kindness are truly revealed – not where he provides daily bread as he does for the birds and heathen, but where he feeds us his children with that which mystifies angels.  He gives us the very Bread of Life who became flesh of our flesh to redeem us, and who remains today bone of our bone even as he leads us through this perishing world by the preaching of his gospel.  And knowing Christ our Savior, for whose sake God gives us everything, we are enabled to enjoy what God gives us without fear that perhaps we are unworthy to do so.  For Jesus sake, God wants us to eat, drink, and be merry with what he has bestowed.  Most definitely!  That is what Thanksgiving is all about.  We feast!  It is more than being happy you have what fills you.  It is to know him who fills you and clothes you as the Father of our Lord Jesus.  We know whom to thank. 

The reason people are so unhappy when they have little is because they do not truly know how to be happy when they have much.  Oh, they think they’re happy.  But it’s an illusion.  To be happy is not properly to have all you want.  It is to want what is greater, and to have what is better, namely, to want and have your highest good, God.  To be happy is to know that for richer or poorer we are his. 

When St. Paul says in Philippians 4:13 that he can do anything through Christ who strengthens him, he was not talking about receiving from Jesus the strength to rise up out of poverty or hardship or hunger and make something of himself.  He was not talking about being able to succeed when the odds were stacked up against him.  This is usually how the posters and plaques interpret it.  But they are wrong.  St. Paul was actually saying the exact opposite.  He was saying that he was able to be content whether he was rich or poor, shamed or honored, filled or hungry, successful or a failure.  He was able to do all things.  “All things” consists not of improving your lot in life, but of learning this precious lesson, that “having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Timothy 6:8) — because we can be content!  But how can we be content?  The book of Hebrews gives us the answer: “Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). 

How wonderful!  This is the character of God.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.  This is his gracious favor and regard towards you.  It is found in the promise he makes.  He who has joined your flesh will not abandon it.  Whatever else he takes away, he will not leave you.  Whatever else he might give you, he will not have those things distance your heart from him.  Whether he makes you rich or poor, he will never take away his promise to forgive you your sins, to bestow upon you his own holy robe of righteousness, to carry you through death and into life, and to raise you on the last day to glory.  No matter how fixated on earthly things you find yourself, no matter how you feel your heart being pulled to obsess over cares and worries of this life or forbidden pleasures that poison your mind and defile you – yet he will not forsake you.  He will bear with all who put their trust in him – with all who, relying on his promise to answer this prayer, pray from the heart to be cleansed and for the Holy Spirit never to depart.  He will never leave you. 

And as a sign and token of this promise, what does he give us?  Does he give us wealth?  Does he give us respectability in the world or influence on national policy?  Does he make the nations and neighborhoods flock to hear what we confess with gratitude, and stay to fill our walls with youth and worldly hope?  No!  In fact, even as he does provide these things in passing moments, he also takes them away just as surely. 

And this he does to teach us not to put our confidence in the things of this world.  Do not let your poverty drive you to despair.  Do not let your success drive you to self-satisfaction.  Do not let the memory of better times or a more vibrant community shift your focus from the one thing needful to something transient and shallow.  He who gives you everything you have promises never to leave you because he wants always to be nearest to you – in your heart, and in your mind – whether you stand or kneel or lie dying in bed.  And so he places in your ears and on your lips his precious word that, while all other things fade before our eyes, will endure forever and ever.  It is the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Here is our token.  It is the good news that he who is your God is also your Brother and Friend who laid down his life for you and took it back again so that what he has you may have too.  Here is our sign of God’s favor.  It is your Baptism.  It is your Savior’s body and blood.  It is the instruction that teaches you to cherish these works of God more highly than any other. 

He has in his hands heaven and earth and all authority to rule both.  And he does.  But he does not use his authority over all things the way we would.  As little boys are wont to do, my son here has taken a liking to comic book heroes.  They have cool powers.  They are cool.  They can manipulate ice and fire and metal and even space and time.  How cool!  If we had power over such things, think of how much good we could do for ourselves.  Or if you want to get really noble, think of how much good you could do for others!  But our Lord Jesus has such powers.  He who determines how long and fierce each winter will be – he who calls forth drought and rain alike also permits illness even as he holds the power to heal.  He who governs all things by the power of his might has all things in his hand, as we sang in the Venite from Psalm 95. 

But how does he use all this power?  Or better yet, why does he seem not to?  It is quite simple, if not always easy to understand.  Just as God himself is a higher good than all the goods that he creates, so the salvation of the sinner is more precious to him than the momentary satisfaction of our temporal needs.  God works all things out for our good.  This means he works things out in such a way that whatever afflicts or delights us is conducive towards our eternal blessedness.  Your faith, which saves you, is more precious to him than anything else.  So it is also most precious to us.  

God does not tempt us.  That’s what the devil does.  No, but God tests us.  He tests our faith either by giving us much or by taking much away.  He does so for two reasons.  First, in order that he might turn our faith away from material joy and toward the spiritual joy of being reconciled to God.  You must ask, What has God not taken away? or else, What is more precious than all this that God has given me?  Either way, we prove with our answer that all authority in heaven and earth is best exercised not by employing super-powers to make life awesome, but by the preaching of the gospel that saves our souls from the covetousness of our own hearts.  This is what endures. 

This leads us naturally to the second reason God tests our faith.  In order to prove it – in order to demonstrate to the world the power and rightness of your trust in God.  He proves your faith – the righteousness of your cause – not just to you, but to those who see your generosity when you are rich and your patience when you are poor.  He boasts before the world in his own creation.  He does so by continuing to sustain it for all to see.  So as surely as God delights to see the world marvel at his amazing works in nature, so much more he delights to see the nations stand in awe at the faith he has created in us – the confidence his saints show forth when they, as the poet puts it, “meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” 

They are imposters if they would steer our hearts from God’s holy word.  But with God’s word, we serve one another in either triumph or disaster. 

God tested the rich man’s faith.  He gave and gave and gave.  He did not tempt him to love money more than the word of God.  But because the man did, all of his wealth only made his death all the more comically tragic.  What’s the point?  Yes, eat, drink, and be merry.  But tomorrow you die.  And a new story opens for you – a story without your barns and banks … and without the favor and pardon of God.   But this is not you.  This is not us.  Because we have God’s word!  It is our greatest heritage.  And leaving it for our children to enjoy after we have died cannot make it any less ours to have and hold.  We do not divide this inheritance.  Rather we watch God multiply it as we teach it to our heirs.  “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7).  Very true!  But that which God has sent into this world – the eternal Word that became flesh – shall carry us and all God’s sons and daughters out.  

So yes, eat, drink, and be merry.  For today you live.  And tomorrow you live.  For you have more than what waits for you at home or what you will purchase tomorrow.   You have, as the Apostle says, all things.  You can do all things because you have all things, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been expended and executed to give to you what fills all things – your Lord Jesus Christ who bids you to delight in what your Father has so bountifully bestowed: food, clothing, and, for his sake, the forgiveness of your sins and life everlasting.  Give thanks to God who has blessed you so, knowing that for Jesus’ sake he is pleased to see you enjoy it.  Amen.